Maziarz Calls High-Speed Rail a 'Fantasy'

NYS Senator George Maziarz intends to find out more about the new train station.

State Sen. George Maziarz this week called the prospect of high-speed rail in New York or anywhere else in the United States a “fantasy.”

“High speed rail is an illusion,” he said. “It can’t be done here using the existing rail infrastructure, and the creation of new infrastructure is far beyond what anybody’s talking about cost-wise.”

Maziarz also said he is concerned that Mayor Paul Dyster’s “inter-modal” train station on Whirlpool Street will put future generations of Niagara Falls taxpayers into debt.

He recently submitted Freedom of Information Law requests to the Niagara Falls City Hall in an attempt to find out how much the new train station here is going to cost.

The documents he’s received back so far have been confusing, he said.

“The cost estimates are just all over the place,” he said.

Maziarz compared the project to the Main Street Public Safety Building project.

“When the state mandated a new courthouse for Niagara Falls, the price was set at $14 million,” Maziarz said. “When Vince Anello and Paul Dyster got done with it, the cost was more than $50 million. The train station is the courthouse redux.”